Kansas University will seek authorization Thursday for a transfer of property from the KU Endowment Association that is part of an $18 million gift from the Hall Family Foundation to the KU Cancer Center.

This month, the Hall Family Foundation announced the gift to fund new space for clinical trials and recruitment of faculty.

Roy Jensen, director of the KU Cancer Center, said $12 million of the gift would help recruit top-notch scientists, and $6 million would help fund a Phase I clinical trials facility in Fairway.

In 2008, the Hall Family Foundation purchased the building and is donating it to the cancer center, as pledged during a sales tax campaign in Johnson County. The foundation had transferred the property to the KU Endowment Association.

The property, at 4350 Shawnee Mission Parkway in Fairway, includes a three-story office built in the 1980s and containing 74,000 square feet of floor space.

KU plans to renovate and expand the building for use as a clinical research center. Resources from the Johnson County sales tax will be used to fund renovations.

On Thursday, the Kansas Board of Regents will consider authorizing transfer of the property from the Endowment Association to the board for the benefit of KU.